Twenty years on former Manchester City chairman David Bernstein can't forgive Roy Keane for his horror tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland.
And Bernstein thinks that the former Manchester United captain should not be involved in professional football because of the incident.
The much-replayed tackle happened in a 2001 Manchester derby - four years after Haaland had accused Keane of diving in a match when in fact the Corkman suffered a cruciate ligament injury.
Keane has freely admitted that the jibe from Haaland set him out a revenge mission which he executed with a red-card offence that left Haaland writhing on the pitch.
Keane said in his book The Second Half, which was published in 2014: "He (Haaland) pissed me off, shooting his mouth off. He was an absolute p**** to play against. Niggling, sneaky. I did want to nail him and let him know what was happening. I wanted to hurt him and stand over him and go: ‘Take that, you c***.’ I don’t regret that. But I had no wish to injure him."
But it is incident that still riles former City chief Bernstein, who told The Athletic : “I’ve never forgotten it. From a personal point of view, that was the worst individual thing I’ve been directly involved in, and the worst I’ve ever seen on the pitch. As a human being, it was an awful thing to see.”
“Roy Keane stood over him and basically said, ‘Take that, you bastard’. It was done in cold blood.
“It was a cold-blooded incident. I have never forgiven Keane for that. I think, frankly, it’s dreadful he’s accepted in football the way he is. After doing something like that, I think it’s absolutely appalling.
“Whenever Keane turns up on television, I switch off. I just won’t watch it. I’m appalled that he’s still involved with football. It’s just not right.
“Things happen, injuries do happen, but to do it deliberately and admit it the way he did, to sell his book, I think is completely beyond the pale.”
